COLLEGE ICE HOCKEY: Princeton upsets Dartmouth, sweeps weekend

PRINCETON — A celebration of the past and an excellent weekend in the present has many thinking about a bright future for the Princeton University men’s hockey team.

On the 90th anniversary of the opening of historic Hobey Baker Rink, a record crowd of 2,711 fans turned out to see Princeton score an upset victory of the No. 8 ranked Dartmouth Big Green by a 2-1 margin.

Having entered the weekend on a seven- game winless skid, a sweep of both Harvard and Dartmouth certainly has the Tigers figuring very prominently in the ECAC playoff picture.

“Confidence at this level is something that’s difficult to attain, and the only way to do it is through winning games,” said Princeton head coach Bob Prier.

It’s funny how momentum plays out sometimes, and that was surely evidenced by the first 20 minutes Saturday evening.

The Big Green (8-5-2, 4-3-1 ECAC), who were coming off a loss on Friday night to conference-leading Quinnipiac, dominated the Tigers (5-7-4, 4-3-3) throughout the first period. But despite an 11-3 shot advantage, the only tangible evidence of that work on the scoreboard came at the 6:18 mark, when Warminster native Eric Neiley capitalized on a bad turnover in the Tigers zone and eventually beat Princeton goalie Mike Condon to give Dartmouth a 1-0 lead.

It was clear that things needed to change going forward, but according to Prier, it wasn’t so much making adjustments as it was his team simply winning more battles that turned the tide in their favor.

“They’ve got some pride in this place, and in each other and in the Princeton Tiger tradition, and they just played with a lot more spunk,” he said.

Added Condon: “They’re the number eight team in the country playing (us) at home, you know they were going to come out a little spicy, and they did. But the guys did a great job rolling with the punches.”

Of course, a fluky goal doesn’t hurt things either.

Just 35 seconds into the second period, senior defenseman Michael Sdao, a draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, flipped a seemingly innocent wrister on goal that banked off a skate in front and caught Dartmouth goalie Charles Grant off-guard. The puck slipped past him, and just like that, the Tigers had tied the game at one.

Jeremy Goodwin was the unlikely source of Princeton’s game-winner two minutes later. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound junior defenseman jumped into the play in a net-mouth scramble, located the loose puck, and somehow jammed it past Grant to give the Tigers a somewhat improbable lead given how the first period had unfolded.

Condon would make sure that lead would stick.

Although the senior netminder was shaky at times, he made several big saves late in the game — 34 in all — including a huge breakaway stop on Tim O’Brien just two minutes into the third that served as a real turning point for the final 20 minutes.

Big Green head coach Bob Gaudet pulled Grant for the extra attacker with a minute and a half remaining, but the Needham, Mass., native made a few more big stops to preserve the four-point weekend for the Tigers.

“The last minute and a half, it’s always crazy, and you try to come out and take away as much space as you can,” Condon said. “But this is (a) huge (weekend). We didn’t do that well in the Catamount Cup, and we hadn’t won in seven games until Harvard. This is a big four points against two very good teams, and it puts us in a very good spot.”